In my article, “Will the Span- ish Koi Sector Disappear?,” published on petproductnews
.com, I highlighted a crisis that
has been facing the sector for
some time. This arose with the
inclusion of the carp, Cyprinus
carpio, in the catalogue of exotic
and invasive species deemed to
pose major threats to native fauna and flora. Such an inclusion
carries an automatic ban on the
import, sale, export and possession of the listed species.

Although appeals were
lodged against the decision by
both government and angling
agencies, Spain’s Supreme Tribunal Court of Contentious Administrative Affairs decided to proceed with the inclusion. As such,
this closed the door on any future
appeal despite attempts from the
state’s own lawyers. Further, the
decision obliged the Ministry for
Environment to include the species in the catalogue, irrespective
of its stance.

Since koi and carp belong to
the same species, concerns were
immediately raised within the
Spanish koi sector, even though
koi, as such, were not specifically
referred to in the court’s ruling.

Unfortunately, these concerns have turned out to be well
founded. However, because koi
do not present the same invasive potential as carp—owing
to the fact that they are kept in
enclosed systems, are less robust
than carp and are more visible to
predators because of their bright
colors—the Spanish Koi Association (Asociación del Koi) and
the Spanish pet industry association, AEDPAC, submitted a report, which the ministry passed
on to the country’s Scientific
Authority.

In the report they also arguethat, although koi are susceptibleto koi herpevirus (KHV)—as arecarp—this is a disease that onlyaffects this species and is not,therefore, one that can spread toSpain’s native fish species. Fur-ther, it states that, owing to theabove factors, koi have not be-come invasive anywhere, otherthan in Australia and New Zea-land, where the endemic charac-teristics of its fish fauna, allied tohabitat deterioration, have beenmajor influencing factors.AEDPAC and the Spanish KoiAssociation, therefore, requestthat an approach similar to thatadopted in the U.S., where koiare considered to constitute acontrolled, or regulated, invasivespecies, be adopted. They alsooffer their collaboration with theauthorities to develop a series ofmeasures aimed at the contain-ment and regulation of koi toensure that they are not releasedinto native waters.After reading the report, theScientific Authority still decid-ed in favor of the retention ofthe total ban. Sometime later, itemerged that several membersof the Scientific Authority werealso members of ecological asso-ciations that are very close to theone that had appealed againstthe exclusion of koi, supportingthe view that they should be re-garded in the same light as carp.AEDPAC and the Spanish KoiAssociation feel that these mem-bers should have been declaredunsuitable for making the finaldecision because they could beseen as interested parties. How-ever, this didn’t happen.The matter becomes evenmore complicated, as more thansix months have elapsed withoutAEDPAC and the Spanish KoiAssociation receiving a responseto their request. This, in effect,constitutes a “positive adminis-trative silence.” As a result, AED-PAC and the Spanish Koi Asso-ciation have managed to obtaina positive administrative silencecertificate from the state. This, inprinciple, should result in an ex-ception being made for koi, wereit not for a new hurdle that hasappeared. It turns out that theSalmonids Association (whose in-tervention at the very beginningof the saga was a fundamentalfactor in the resulting ban) hasappealed against the positive ad-ministrative silence, alleging thatlegalizing the koi sector wouldrepresent a huge threat.

At the time of writing, AEDPAC and the Spanish Koi Association are awaiting a response from
the Ministry for Environment.
There’s also concern that other
European Union countries might
follow the Spanish example, with
catastrophic results for the European koi market. AEDPAC is in
contact with other trade organizations to explore possible ways
of resolving this serious issue.
Clearly, there’s still a long way to
go before a solution is found.

John Dawes is an international ornamental aquatic industry consultant. He has written and/or edited
more than 50 books and has contributed more than 4,000 articles to hobby, trade and academic publications.
He is the editor of the OFI Journal
and a consultant to AquaRealm, the
new trade show that took place June
2017 in Singapore.

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